Appointment of Chairman

RNS Number : 1608E

Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd.

14 July 2016

 

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14 July 2016

Gulf Keystone Petroleum Limited. (LSE: GKP)

("Gulf Keystone", "GKP" or "the Company")

Appointment of Chairman

Gulf Keystone Petroleum is pleased to announce that Keith Lough, Non-Executive Director, has been appointed Non-Executive Chairman.

Andrew Simon, currently Non-Executive Chairman, will retire from the Board of Directors of Gulf Keystone with immediate effect.

Commenting on today's announcement, Andrew Simon said:

"Having overseen a renewal of both the Board and the senior management team during the last 15 months,  and together with the restructuring announced today, it is now an appropriate time to hand over the Chairmanship to Keith, who has spent a lifetime in the oil industry.  His deep industry knowledge at a time of low oil prices and geopolitical challenges has already proved invaluable whilst he chaired the Finance Committee and I am delighted that he has agreed to take on the Chairmanship."

Keith Lough said:

"I would like to thank Andrew for his tireless work on behalf of all of GKP's stakeholders.  Over the course of his time on the Board, as a NED and latterly as Chairman, he has overseen the Company through an extremely tough time, not only for all of the Kurdistan operators, but for the Oil & Gas sector as a whole. On behalf of everyone at GKP I would like to wish Andrew the very best in his retirement.

"I look forward to working with my fellow Directors and all at GKP as we focus on restoring value in the Company. I would also like to reiterate what has been said about the proposed restructuring. The deal effectively saves the Company and, whilst not without cost, is the only credible option which allows us to move forward with the Shaikan project."

Enquiries:

Gulf Keystone Petroleum:	[phone]
Anastasia Vvedenskaya, Head of Investor Relations	[phone]
Celicourt Communications:	[phone]
Mark Antelme Jimmy Lea

or visit: www.gulfkeystone.com 

Notes to Editors:

Keith Lough

Keith Lough (55) read Economics at Edinburgh University before qualifying as a chartered certified accountant with British Gas in 1985. He subsequently obtained an MSc in Finance from London Business School. In 1988 Keith joined LASMO PLC where over the course of the next eleven years he held a range of senior commercial, financial and operational roles, including MD of the North Sea, and then Europe and North Africa before LASMO was sold to ENI.

Keith was CFO of PetroKazakhstan for two years before being headhunted for the CFO role of British Energy, the nuclear power company. At British Energy he oversaw the complex restructuring of the business and the interaction with the UK Government and its creditors.  In 2004 Keith founded coal bed methane focused Composite Energy Ltd, which was acquired by Dart in 2011.

The team from Composite spent a year at Hutton Energy, during which time Keith was CEO. Keith is currently a Non-Executive Director of Rockhopper Exploration PLC, Cairn Energy PLC, Papua Mining PLC and the UK Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (Ofgem). 

He was appointed to the Board of Gulf Keystone in December 2015.

Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. (LSE: GKP) is a leading independent operator and producer in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the operator of the Shaikan field with current production capacity of 40,000 barrels of oil per day.

Disclaimer

This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements.  These statements are made by the Company's Directors in good faith based on the information available to them up to the time of their approval of this announcement but such statements should be treated with caution due to inherent uncertainties, including both economic and business factors, underlying such forward-looking information.  This announcement has been prepared solely to provide additional information to shareholders to assess the Group's strategies and the potential for those strategies to succeed.  This announcement should not be relied on by any other party or for any other purpose.

 

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